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The Power of Universality of Islam Comes from Being a Movement of All Believers: Fred Donner

hup.harvard.edu: Book review and talk: Muhammad and the Believers: By Fred Donner

The origins of Islam have been the subject of increasing controversy in recent years. The traditional view, which presents Islam as a self-consciously distinct religion tied to the life and revelations of the prophet Muhammad in western Arabia, has since the 1970s been challenged by historians engaged in critical study of the Muslim sources.

In Muhammad and the Believers, the eminent historian Fred Donner offers a lucid and original vision of how Islam first evolved. He argues that the origins of Islam lie in what we may call the “Believers’ movement” begun by the prophet Muhammad—a movement of religious reform emphasizing strict monotheism and righteous behavior in conformity with God’s revealed law. The Believers’ movement thus included righteous Christians and Jews in its early years, because like the Qur’anic Believers, Christians and Jews were monotheists and agreed to live righteously in obedience to their revealed law. The conviction that Muslims constituted a separate religious community, utterly distinct from Christians and Jews, emerged a century later, when the leaders of the Believers’ movement decided that only those who saw the Qur’an as the final revelation of the One God and Muhammad as the final prophet, qualified as Believers. This separated them decisively from monotheists who adhered to the Gospels or Torah.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A University of Chicago professor in Near Eastern history, Donner (Narratives of Islamic Origins) presents the intriguing view that the early Islamic movement, as presided over by Muhammad, actively included Jews and Christians in the flock as part of a general monotheistic community. It was only later, after Muhammad’s death, that a new generation of Muslims began ritualizing Islam with its own distinctive practices, such as the hajj (pilgrimage) and the five daily prayers. Though Donner isn’t entirely persuasive (and surely many Muslims would be stunned by some of his assertions), he raises many original points, gleaning evidence from everything from coinage to original source documents. Questioning longstanding stereotypes, he argues (and proves) that Muslims are not, by nature, anti-Jewish and also that, based on archeological evidence, Muslims did not routinely tear down churches. The early Muslims, though brutal in war, created a sophisticated and organized civil system. For those curious about Islam’s beginnings, no book is as original and as evenhanded as this succinct read. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Donner is one of the leading scholars of early Islam in the world. No other book I know of distills the often highly arcane and dispersed stuff of scholarship on the first century of Islamic history into such an accessible narrative account that, in addition, offers a compelling new interpretation on the formation of Islamic confessional identity. A tremendous achievement. (Ahmet Karamustafa, Washington University In St. Louis )This is an invaluable book. Not only does it provide a sane and lucid guide to the origins of Islam, a topic that is currently more mired in controversy than any other in the entire field of ancient history, but it is also a stimulating and original work of scholarship in its own right. (Tom Holland, Author Of millennium)Donner presents the intriguing view that the early Islamic movement, as presided over by Muhammad, actively included Jews and Christians in the flock as part of a general monotheistic community. It was only later, after Muhammad’s death, that a new generation of Muslims began ritualizing Islam with its own distinctive practices, such as the hajj (pilgrimage) and the five daily prayers…He raises many original points, gleaning evidence from everything from coinage to original source documents. Questioning longstanding stereotypes, he argues (and proves) that Muslims are not, by nature, anti-Jewish and also that, based on archeological evidence, Muslims did not routinely tear down churches. The early Muslims, though brutal in war, created a sophisticated and organized civil system. For those curious about Islam’s beginnings, no book is as original and as evenhanded as this succinct read. (Publishers Weekly20100308)In Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, Donner takes a fresh look at the heart and soul of Islamic history. (Joseph Richard Preville Saudi Gazette 20100621)

A learned and brilliantly original, yet concise and accessible study of Islam’s formative first century…Donner’s explanation of the process by which Muslims came to define themselves is both fascinating and enlightening. (Max Rodenbeck New York Times 20100627)

It is an excellent introduction to how and why the faith was born, and explains its proliferation in the Middle East and beyond…Donner uses the original text of the Qur’an and other source materials dating from the same period to piece together the history of the faith. What quickly becomes clear is that Islam, and what it means to be a “Muslim,” have both changed dramatically since the early days…Muhammad and the Believers is full…of intriguing questions and challenges readers to reconsider what they think they know about Islam…[It’s] a rewarding read. (Dan Sampson culturemob.com 20100707)

Donner is to be commended for posing questions that many mainstream scholars have chosen to leave aside. (Malise Ruthven New York Review of Books 20110407)

Provocative and accessible…Donner’s vision of an “ecumenical Islam” is thought-provoking…Donner’s overarching thesis in Muhammad and the Believers is convincing. It sheds light on a world far more fluid and confused than the one we have come to expect from the usual storyline. (Christian C. Sahner Times Literary Supplement 20110701)

more:

Video: By Professor Fred Donner: Islam is now everywhere in the headlines. In recent decades there has been much scholarly debate over Islam’s origins. The traditional Muslim view has increasingly been found inadequate, but critical scholarship has not been able to reach a consensus on how Islam arose. The present talk surveys the issues at stake and a number of interpretations that have been recently proposed to understand just what happened at the origins of Islam 14 centuries ago.

 

 

 

 

Video:

Fred McGraw Donner (born 1945) is a scholar of Islam and Professor of Near Eastern History at the University of Chicago.[1]

Early life

Donner was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, where he attended public schools.[citation needed] In 1968 he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Oriental Studies at Princeton University, having interrupted his studies from 1966 to 1967 to pursue the study of Arabic at the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies (MECAS) in the village of Shimlan, Lebanon.[citation needed] From 1968 to 1970 he served with the U. S. Army, seeing duty with U. S. Army Security Agency in Herzogenaurach, Germany in 1969-1970. He then studied oriental philology for a year (1970-1971) at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität in Erlangen, Germany, before returning to Princeton for doctoral work.[citation needed] Donner received his PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton in 1975.[citation needed] He taught Middle Eastern history in the History Department at Yale University from 1975-1982 before taking his position at the University of Chicago in 1982 (The Oriental Institute and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations). He served as chairman of his Department (1997–2002) and as Director of the University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (2009–present).[citation needed]

Academic career

His book The Early Islamic Conquests (1981) has been described as “magisterial”[2] and “a major contribution to the understanding of early Islamic history” (International Journal of Middle East Studies).[3] It is used as a set text for several university courses.[4] He has also published a translation of a volume of the history of al-Tabari.[1] His book Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, an account of the early years of the spiritual movement that would come to be known as Islam, was published by Harvard University Press in May 2010. Donner’s main argument is that what came to be called Islam began as a monotheistic “Believers’ movement” inaugurated by the prophet Muhammad which included righteous Christians and Jews as well as those monotheists who followed the teachings of the Qur’an. This argument was first presented at a “Late Antiquity and Early Islam” workshop in London in 1993, and published in his article “From Believers to Muslims,” which appeared in the journal Al-Abhath 50-51 (2002–2003), pp. 9–53.

In his Narratives of Islamic Origins, he argues for an early date for the Qur’an text. He responds in particular to the theory of late canonization of the Qur’an proposed by John Wansbrough and Yehuda D. Nevo.[5] The book attempts to explain how concerns for legitimation in the developing Islamic community shaped the themes that are the focus of Islamic historical writing, particularly the themes of prophecy, community, hegemony, and leadership.

In 2007, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship[6] to examine Arabic papyri from the first Islamic century (seventh century CE) at collections in Paris, Vienna, Oxford, and Heidelberg.[citation needed]

Donner is a long-term member of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), The American Oriental Society, and Middle East Medievalists.

Donner was President of Middle East Medievalists from 1992 until 1994 and served as editor of the journal Al-Usur al-Wusta: The Bulletin of Middle East Medievalists from 1992 until 2011.[7]

Donner is currently the President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.[citation needed] He has been a member of MESA since 1975, served an earlier term on MESA’s Board of Directors (1992-1994) and was awarded MESA’s Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2008.[citation needed]

Bibliography

  • The Early Islamic Conquests (Princeton University Press; 1981) ISBN 0-691-05327-8
  • The History of al-Tabari (Vol. 10): The Conquest of Arabia (State University of New York Press; 1993) ISBN 0-7914-1072-2 (translation)
  • Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing (Darwin Press; 1998) ISBN 0-87850-127-4
  • Muhammad and the Believers. At the Origins of Islam (Harvard University Press; 2010) ISBN 978-0-674-05097-6

External links

References

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3 replies ›

  1. I think he has a facsinating thesis where if intentions are good it is worth understanding. Of course his argument that “Islam” was coined much later is wrong because the word appears in the Quranic revelations as “having completed the Faith” which is Islam is a verse revealed to the Prophet close his death. The finality here again refers to excellence and not the end as Ahmadis see and understand it. He of course does not dwell too much on the connection between being a Muslim and a Momin. The fact that that Khalifatul Masih is more popoularly called Ameer-ul-Mominin even today is interesting. I would welcome comments on this article and video.

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  2. When he says that the rituals of 5 daily prayers and Hajj came after the demise of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), is not correct, since, these are mentioned in the Qur’an and the Prophet (pbuh), and his companions all followed these and the ways were shown by him in his lifetime.

    Like the name Islam has been given to our religion by Allah Himself as mentioned in the last verse revealed of the Holy Qur’an. Also, the rituals of Hajj were as performed by the Holy Prophet in his last pilgrimage.

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  3. At least it proves that the prophet Muhammad s.a.w.s. was a peaceful, moderate person who considered the Jews and Christians as believers (Momineen). The Quran also endorses the same fact if Momin is considered as a person of any faith who believes in Allah and does good deeds. (verse 2:62/63) Of course, the belief of older faith people will be limited to Allah and their prophet only.

    People of all faiths get the benefit of their belief and good deeds. Islam did not start with the prophet Muhammad s.a.w.s. He did not invent and introduce “Allah”. Allah was there all the time before him in Arabia. Islam was also the religion since time immemorial. Those who believed and submitted to the will of Allah were named as Muslims in the time of Abraham a.s. Belief takes precedence before Islam. There cannot be a Muslim without being a Momin. Eiman (belief) is the first pillar of Islam.

    Presently, it seems that Islam wants all Jews to be good Jews and all Christians to be good Christians (of course, all Muslims to be good Muslims). There is no compulsion but if they convert to Islam (believe in Muhammad s.a.w.s.) that would be the best.

    But the people of other faiths have to be careful because a wrong version of Islam is running wild in the world. There are now many Muslims who do not represent real Islam. Just like the Jews and the Christians who have forgotten their real faith lessons, there are majority Muslims also who know nothing about real Islam. It is absolutely necessary to refer to the teachings of the Ahmadiyah community to understand Islam.

    After considering the views of professor Fred Donner, the Jews and the Christians ( and many others) should forget (and discard) the antipathy they have against the prophet Muhammad and Islam. In addition, every one interested in religion (or spirituality) should study the Quran personally before forming any idea about Islam.

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